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To Boil a Turkey with Oyster Sauce

A boiled turkey stuffed with a forcemeat of bread, oysters, butter, cream, eggs, and spices, served with oyster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Boil a Turkey with Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Grate a loaf of bread.

  2. Chop a score or more of oysters finely.

  3. Add nutmeg, pepper, and salt to taste.

  4. Mix the bread, oysters, nutmeg, pepper, salt into a light forcemeat with a quarter pound of butter, a spoonful or two of cream, and three eggs.

Stuff and dredge the turkey

  1. Stuff the turkey with the forcemeat.

  2. Make the remaining forcemeat into balls and boil them.

  3. Sew up the turkey.

  4. Dredge the turkey well with flour.

Boil and rest

  1. Put the turkey in a kettle of cold water, cover it, and set it over the fire.

  2. When scum begins to rise, remove it and let the turkey boil very slowly for half an hour.

  3. After the half hour, remove the kettle from the fire and keep it closely covered.

  4. If the turkey is of a middle size, let it stand in the hot water for half an hour, keeping the steam in, to stew it enough, keep the skin whole, tender, and very white.

Serve

  1. When you dish it, pour a little oyster sauce over it, lay the balls round, and serve it with the rest of the sauce in a boat.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

198Calories
7 gProtein
18 gFat
3 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds its shape when stuffed and boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the light forcemeat.
Oysters (in the method)
Give the forcemeat and sauce their characteristic briny flavour.
Bread (in the method)
Forms the body of the forcemeat, soaking up moisture and holding it.

The step that matters

Boil the turkey very slowly after the scum rises. Gentle simmering keeps the skin intact and tender, while a hard rolling boil can break up the surface and toughen the meat.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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